Ryan Makes Offer To Step Down At GOP Convention

The convoluted relationship between Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., grew even more complicated Monday when Ryan said he is willing to stand down from his duties as chairman of the Republican National Convention if Trump makes that request.

“He’s the nominee. I’ll do whatever he wants,” Ryan said during an interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Monday.

“I just want to get to know the guy … we just don’t know each other,” said Ryan, who last week declared himself “not ready” to support Trump. “I never said never. I just said (not) at this point. I wish I had more time to get to know him before this happened. We just didn’t.”

Ryan’s comments come one day after Trump dodged a question on NBC’s Meet the Press Sunday concerning whether Ryan should chair the convention.

“I don’t want to mention now. I’ll see after,” Trump said, referencing a meeting with Ryan scheduled for Thursday. “I will give you a very solid answer, if that happens, about one minute after that happens. OK? But there’s no reason to give it right now. But I’ll be very quick with the answer. Let’s see what happens.”

Trump said he has a “nice relationship” with Ryan, but noted that he’s he “not exactly sure what he has in mind.”

Advertisement - story continues below

After Trump assumed the mantle of GOP nominee, he called for unity, but instead has seen many top leaders in the party decline to support him, including 2012 nominee Mitt Romney and former Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush. Trump has responded suggesting unity among the party need not mean unanimity.

“I’d like to have his (Ryan’s) support. But if he doesn’t want to support me, that’s fine, and we have to go about it,” Trump said.

In a statement that seems to send a direct message to what the New York Times called “those in the party who think they have earned more of a right to set its political and ideological course,” Trump said he is responsible to the voters, not the insiders.

“I’m going to do what I have to do — I have millions of people that voted for me,” Trump said on ABC’s This Week. “So I have to stay true to my principles also. And I’m a conservative, but don’t forget, this is called the Republican Party. It’s not called the Conservative Party.”